By Angela Hoy, Helen Shim, and Isabella Falsetti
This week at the garden, work parties have been harvesting early summer produce — namely lettuce, Swiss chard, haskap, garlic scapes, broad beans, and green onions.
On Wednesday, May 31, Alex started off the work party by presenting a diagram of the drip line irrigation system and how water percolates through the soil.
The team picked Cloud Mountain stem lettuce — a variety similar to Romaine — which can be harvested early in the season and is very productive. They also harvested crisp bunches of Swiss chard, handfuls of haskap — a hardy winter berry native to Siberia also known as honeyberry. Haskap is a relative of honeysuckle and tastes similar to the blueberry, but produces fruit earlier in the season and is even higher in antioxidants.
Gardeners also pruned raspberry bushes and planted parsley and summer squash.
This time of year offers the ideal weather for planting and harvesting — we’re getting about 16 hours of daylight and the temperatures remain comfortable throughout the day.
On Sunday, June 4, volunteers harvested garlic scapes, broad beans, and green onions. According to traditional knowledge, it’s best to harvest garlic scapes once the stalk has made a full circle. They can be used to make pesto or as a milder form of garlic.
Broad beans, also known as Fava beans, need to be harvested as soon as they reach maturity. Otherwise, they begin to flower and set seed, which signals to the rest of the plant that the fruit-producing season is over. This is especially important for other types of peas and beans.
Gardeners also worked on watering, weeding, and tending the compost.
In other news, the pitcher plants are blooming beautifully in Alex’s bog planter! These flowers are Sarracenia purpurea, the only species of pitcher plant native to Canada, and are incredibly hardy, able to withstand frigid northern temperatures.
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